Down To Earth

Editorial. Sunita Narain.
VIII.V.XV

Deadly Air: Face
It

By Sunita
Narain

I do not know how
best to respond to this question. These days,
concerned about the toxic air of Delhi, many
parents, particularly those with children who have
asthma, ask me if they should leave the city. Many
times, I am also told that they have decided to
move away; they cannot take it anymore. It is a
no-brainer, you would say. After all, Delhi is
very polluted and we know from all evidence that
air toxins are deadly for our health. There may
not be any comprehensive epidemiological study,
which conclusively shows how growing air pollution
in Indian cities is adding to health burden, but
there is enough to tell us that things are bad.
Only the most diehard polluter—a
manufacturer of diesel vehicles, for
example—would argue that the current level
of air pollution in Delhi is not hazardous for our
health.

This past winter, in
November, December and January, air was classified
as “severely polluted” for over 65 per
cent of the days. According to the
government’s own air quality index this
would mean pollution is so bad that it would cause
“respiratory effects even on healthy
people”. So why am I troubled in saying that
yes, they should leave the city? After all, their
health is at risk.

One, I realised,
painfully, that it would mean accepting defeat. It
was in the mid-1990s that we started work on clean
air. Then, unlike now, people did not even see the
connection with our bodies. When we said tiny
particles, emitted from diesel vehicles, could be
carcinogenic, a leading automobile manufacturer
slapped us with Rs 100 crore defamation suit. But
courts and governments worked to take decisive and
difficult action, and pollution was
checked.

Now we are back to where
we started. Pollution is rising; governments are
scrambling to deny the obvious and it is clear
that this second-generation reform is much more
difficult. All the easy pickings—if you can
call the contested transition to compressed
natural gas (CNG) in vehicles easy—are over.
Now the answer is to restrain the growth of cars
and build convenient and modern public transport
system so that even the rich do not use their
vehicles. Now the answer is to drastically improve
the quality of fuel and technology used in trucks
or find ways for them to bypass cities. Now the
answer is to find more CNG to use in industries
and to ensure that there is tight enforcement of
rules from institutions that have been whittled
away deliberately. All this is difficult. More
difficult than before. So, should we give up?
Decide that it is impossible to do
anything?

But then, I think of how
Anil Agarwal—Centre for Science and
Environment’s founder—had reacted to
the news of his own cancer. He investigated cause
and found clear links with contaminants like
pesticides. “My story today your story
tomorrow” was his poignant rallying call for
bringing change in the way we spray our food with
poison. Just before his death, he set up
India’s first public laboratory to test
contaminants in our everyday life. Since then the
tests done—from pesticides in soft drinks
and Punjab farmer’s blood to antibiotics in
chicken—have brought home the fact that we
need to reduce our exposure to toxins. And even
though much more needs to be done, it is good to
know that Agarwal’s fight has not been
wasted. So, leaving should not be the question.
How to fight and win this battle against pollution
should be.

Secondly, where will you
go? The fact is that most of India is getting
equally polluted—air is equally foul but it
is just not monitored. This is the difference
between Delhi and other cities. Other cities also
have everything going for pollution
cocktail—growing number of diesel vehicles,
poor public transport, weak surveillance of
polluting factories and poverty that forces people
to burn biomass instead of cleaner cooking fuel.
So, where will you run away to?

This is the same when we
believed that the answer to fighting pollution was
to buy air purifiers. But the fact is that
purifiers can clean only up to a limit and not all
pollutants. Besides, we have to breathe common air
sometime. Yes, if you are rich you can install it
in your house to protect yourself and your
children from the worst of the harm. But it is not
the answer because not everyone is rich enough to
use one. The answer is to clean the
air.

Yes, you can run abroad
where countries breathe better air. But how many
have that option? This is what should drive us to
not give up. We have to win this battle—for
the sake of those who have left our city and for
the sake of those who stay. There is no choice.
This is the answer.